Qian Cao

Dr. Qian Cao joined CW3E as a postdoctoral research scholar in 2021. Her prior research work includes examination of the role of hydrological initial conditions in the linkage between flooding and atmospheric rivers (ARs) in coastal Western U.S. watersheds in a changing climate, evaluation of the AR-related flood forecast skill driven by recently developed data sets such as SubX and West-WRF, as well as investigation of the benefits from remote sensing products in hydrologic applications. Her expertise is hydrological modeling and analysis. She has experience with models like DHSVM, VIC and Noah-MP. Her research at CW3E involves using hydrologic models and methods to investigate variability in regional terrestrial water storage, in the form of ground water and surface water including snowpack, as revealed by a growing archive of GPS near-surface crustal displacements that are collected throughout California and across the U.S. She will also be working on the hydrological modeling using WRF-Hydro over the Western U.S. to support the FIRO project.